Appearance and Character

As a child Asha was a skinny girl with knob knees and a face full of pimples.[2][3] In her mid-twenties, Asha is lean and longlegged, with dark eyes and black hair cut short. Her face is thin, with a big, sharp nose, and wind-chafed skin. On her neck is a faded pink scar.[2] Her brother Theon believes her nose is too big and sharp for her small face, however, but feels that her wicked smile makes up for it.[2]

Asha is a wild and headstrong young woman,[4][5] raised by her mother to be bold.[3] There is a boldness to the way she walks; part saunter, part sway.[2] She possesses a sharp wit,[2] and has no problem with holding her own against men, both in a verbal battle[citation needed] and in a physical fight.[5] Defying the classical gender roles of Westerosi culture, Asha was appalled early on by the idea of becomming a lord's wife.[3] After her older two brothers died and her younger brother was taken hostage, her father Balon began to see her as his heir, treating her like he would a son.[4][6][7]

Asha prefers dressing in man's garb,[2] and personally leads her men into battle.[5] She captains her own ship, the Black Wind,[8] and has the devotion of her crew,[3] who take a perverse pride in the deeds of their female captain. According to Asha, half of them love her like a daughter, while the other half wants to sleep with her.[3] Regardless, Asha loves her men,[5] and is willing to die for them, as they are for her.[3] In battle, Asha prefers an axe,[5] which she has been practicing with since she was just a little girl.[6] She also keeps a dirk with her.[2]

History

Asha was fairly unattractive in her youth. Her uncle, Victarion Greyjoy, remembers Asha as a little girl swimming naked in the sea and playing with her doll.[6] After Theon Greyjoy's departure for Winterfell to be Eddard Stark's hostage and ward, Asha became Lord Balon Greyjoy's only remaining child in Pyke. Her mother, Lady Alannys Harlaw, fostered five boys at Pyke after Theon's departure. Tristifer Botley, the boy closest to Asha in age, developed an infatuation with her when they went through puberty, but Asha did not reciprocate his affections.[3]

Recent Events

A Clash of Kings

Upon Theon's return, Asha is reported to be on Great Wyk taking messages for her father.[8] Asha passes herself off as Esgred, a shipwright's wife, and flirts with Theon to learn his nature. Theon's naive arrogance amuses her, but Theon grows angry at Asha's deception and her position. At a feast that night, Asha takes the place of honor beside Balon, making Theon feel cheated. When he confronts her again about her deception, she claims that she did in fact have a husband, hefting an axe, as well as a suckling babe, retrieving a dagger from between her breasts.[2]

On Old Wyk before the kingsmoot, Asha realizes that she does not have as much support as she had hoped, and offers to back her uncle Victarion Greyjoy if he will make her his Hand of the King. Victarion refuses, as no King of the Isles had ever had one, much less a woman, and he disagrees with her plans to end the war.[6] At the kingsmoot, she challenges the ancient and obese Erik Ironmaker to rise from his chair, his support crumbling when he cannot. When she makes her own claim, her champions are Tris Botley, Ser Harras Harlaw, and Qarl the Maid. With the proposal to make peace and alliance with the north in exchange for Sea Dragon Point and the Stony Shore, Asha achieves a surprising amount of support. The crowd, however, ultimately favors her uncle, Euron Greyjoy.[7]

A Dance with Dragons

While at Ten Towers following the kingsmoot, Asha learns her uncle Euron married her to Erik Ironmaker after she fled Old Wyk, using a seal to represent her at the wedding. Asha curses this but admires Euron's cunning: this move prevents Asha from offering a marriage to another lord and winning his support. She returns to Deepwood Motte with Lady Glover, while her captive's children remain at Ten Towers.[5]

The ironborn at Deepwood Motte dwindle and begin to starve before being overtaken by King Stannis Baratheon's army in an attempt to flee back to their ships.[5] Asha is taken captive and continues with Stannis's host toward Winterfell. A snow storm sets in during their march, however, and the army slows to a halt at a crofters' village approximately three days ride from Winterfell, with few provisions left.[14] Many of Stannis’s men call for Asha to be sacrificed to R'hllor in an attempt to thwart the snows. It is there, freezing and starving, that they are met by Tycho Nestoris of the Iron Bank of Braavos and Theon, escaped from Winterfell. With this meeting, the siblings' roles are reversed, with Theon recognizing Asha and Asha not recognizing Theon.[15]

The Winds of Winter

Asha is distressed when she sees what Ramsay Bolton did to her brother. She is later brought before Stannis while Theon is chained nearby in the room. She tries to offer a ransom for him but Stannis refuses, stating Theon must die for what he did to Eddard Stark's sons or Stannis's northern allies would abandon him. Asha, seeing Stannis will not relent, then urges him to kill Theon by beheading him personally, before a heart tree, as Eddard Stark would have done.

Asha likely makes this suggestion to spare her brother the pain of being burned alive, as Stannis's followers hope to sacrifice him to R'hllor.[16]

Peace. Land. Victory. I'll give you Sea Dragon Point and the Stony Shore, black earth and tall trees and stones enough for every younger son to build a hall. We'll have the northmen too ... as friends, to stand with us against the Iron Throne. Your choice is simple. Crown me, for peace and victory. Or crown my uncle, for more war and more defeat. What will you have, ironmen?[7]